Coda Reactor brings back the hardcore at Eleven

When Black Flag first emerged in the early '80s, kids would beat the living crap out of each other at their shows. But hardcore isn't always as crazy as it used to be. When I saw Blue Note recently (aka Swing Kids), the influential San Diego hardcore band, a few in the audience spazzed out while others looked on nostalgically.

Coda Reactor wants to bring hardcore back, one mosh pit at a time. At Eleven in City Heights last week, the local punk band threw down a 30-minute set of supercharged, three-chord rock. As he roared like a young Glenn Danzig, frontman Miles Orff set upon the room like a wild animal, knocking over monitors, writhing on the floor and throwing himself into the audience in hopes of starting a mosh pit (or perhaps a fistfight). When the dozen-or-so people in the audience chanted for an encore, Orff wasn't feeling it—his lip was busted and face bloodied after taking a running dive onto the hard floor.

The band's been playing live since April; Orff admits this wasn't their best show. Guitarist Riff Vomit pulled off several gnarly solos while bassist Scott Jones and drummer Tim Helton made for an unstoppable rhythm section. But they had some technical difficulties: Orff's guitar and pedals stopped working, and, he says, “I probably had a few too many drinks.”

But he did get one step closer to his goal of riling up the local music scene.

“I want people to stop standing around and trying to look so cool and just start to express themselves, dancing around and getting wild,” he says. “It's supposed to be a celebration—a release, kind of. A ceremonial release.”